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Sarah Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a four-time Winter X Games gold medalist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. 

Sarah Burke cause of death
Sarah Burkedied following a training accident in Utah.
Sarah Burke was 29 years old at the time of her death.

Accident
On January 10, 2012 Burke was seriously injured while training on the Park City Mountain Resort Eagle superpipe in Park City, Utah. This is the same superpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce was seriously injured in 2009. Onlookers reported that Burke had completed a trick fairly well yet fell onto her head, and the accident did not appear to be very severe. Moments later, however, she went into cardiac arrest while still on the ski slope, making her chance of survival extremely low. She was resuscitated and airlifted to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she was reported to be in a coma. The following day, she underwent neurosurgery to repair a tear in a vertebral artery. She succumbed to her injuries on January 19, 2012. Per her publicist's words, Burke's injuries had resulted in "irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest." Her organs and tissues were donated as she requested before her death.

etalk Sarah Burke at Whistler World Ski Fest

Samuel Carthorne Rivers (September 25, 1923 – December 26, 2011), was an American jazz musician and composer. He performed on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano.

Rivers was born in Enid, Oklahoma. Active in jazz since the early 1950s, he earned wider attention during the mid-1960s spread of free jazz. With a thorough command of music theory, orchestration and composition, Rivers was an influential and prominent artist in jazz music.

Sam Rivers cause of death
Sam Rivers died from pneumonia in Orlando, Florida
Sam Rivers was 88 years old at the time of his death.

Sam Rivers Trio 1979 - Sam Rivers on Sax

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. He was co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer.

On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that the Apple executive succession plan be followed and Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed chairman of Apple's board of directors.

Steve Jobs cause of death
Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer.
Steve Jobs was 56 years old at the time of his death.

Forbes Editors On Great Steve Jobs Moments

Sylvia Robinson (March 6, 1936 - September 29, 2011) was a singer, musician, music producer, and record label executive, most notably known for her work as founder/CEO of the seminal hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the genre. The first was "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, which was the first rap song to be released by a hip hop act. The second was "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.

Sylvia Robinson cause of death
Sylvia Robinson died of congestive heart failure.
Sylvia Robinson was 75 years old at the time of her death.

Pillow Talk - Sylvia Robinson

The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight

Salvatore Licitra (August 10, 1968  – September 5, 2011) was an Italian operatic tenor.

Salvatore Licitra Cause of Death
On 27 August 2011, Licitra sustained severe head and chest injuries when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while riding his motor scooter and crashed into a wall in Modica, Ragusa, Sicily. He remained in a coma for nine days in the Garibaldi Hospital in Catania and was pronounced clinically dead on September 5, 2011. According to the Italian paper Il Messaggero, his body will lie in state in the Catania's opera house, the Teatro Massimo Bellini.

Salvatore Licitra sings "E Lucevan le Stelle" from Tosca

Severiano "Seve" Ballesteros Sota (April 9, 1957 – May 7, 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. He gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at the age of 19 he finished second at the British Open. A member of a gifted golfing family, Ballesteros won five major championships between 1979 and 1988, the British Open three times, and The Masters twice. He was also successful in the Ryder Cup, helping the European team to five wins both as a player and captain, and won the World Match Play Championship a record-tying five times. He is best known for his great short game, and his erratic driving of the golf ball. He is generally regarded as the greatest Spanish golfer of all time.

Seve Bellesteros Cause of Death
On 6 May 2011, his family released a press release announcing that Ballesteros's neurological condition had "suffered a severe deterioration". He died within hours of the announcement in the early hours of 7 May 2011. 

Tiger Woods said of Ballesteros that he was "one of the most talented and exciting golfers to ever play the game"

Sada Carolyn Thompson (September 27, 1927 — May 4, 2011) was an American stage, film and television actress.

Sada Thompson was nominated for the Emmy Award nine times in total. Additional television credits include Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, The Love Boat, Father Dowling Mysteries, Andre's Mother, Cheers, Indictment: The McMartin Trial, and Law & Order.

Thompson's feature films include The Pursuit of Happiness, Desperate Characters and Pollock.

Sada Thompson Cause of Death
Sada Thompson died in Danbury, Connecticut of lung disease.
Sada Thompson was 83 years old at the time of her death.
In addition to her daughter, Liza, she was survived by her husband, a former executive for Pan American Airlines, and a brother, David.

Sidney Lumet (June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his name, including 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982), all of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director.

Sidney Lumet Cause of Death
Sidney Lumet died of lymphoma (form of Cancer)
Sidney Lumet was 86 years old at the time of his death

Steve Landesberg (November 23, 1936  – December 20, 2010) was an American actor, comedian, and voice actor best known for his role of Arthur P. Dietrich on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller.

Death of Steve Landesberg

Landesberg died from colon cancer on December 20, 2010, aged 74. Initial reports of Mr. Landesberg’s death, relying on numerous biographical sources, said he was 65.

In acknowledging that he was actually nine years older, his daughter said he had provided varying birth dates over the years. "He got kind of a late start in show business," she explained, "so he tried to straddle the generations. He fooled the whole world. People were surprised to think he was even 65."

 Barney Miller: Dietrich Does Gregory Peck

Stephen Joseph Cannell (February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010) was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor who was also the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

Cannell has created or co-created nearly 40 television series, mostly crime dramas, including The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street, Silk Stalkings, and The Commish. In the process he had, by his own count, scripted more than 450 episodes, and produced or executive produced over 1,500 episodes.

Death of Stephen J. Cannell
Stephen J. Cannell died September 30, 2010, due to complications associated with melanoma.

Stephen J. Cannell (himself) on the logo

For many years, Cannell's office was at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, though his shows (with the exception of Hunter and The Greatest American Hero) were almost always distributed by Universal Studios. The closing logo  of his production company features him typing, before throwing the sheet from his typewriter whereupon it animates to become his company logo against a black screen (the one sheet of paper lands on a stack of paper forming a letter C) It was updated often, the main differences being Cannell's clothes, sometimes new awards were in the background and (rarely) a new office for the live-action part. Early examples are also notable for Cannell smoking a pipe as he types. 

Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009) was an American comedian, actor, and radio-TV personality and host. He was best known for his long-running local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark.

From 1968 to 1975, he was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of What's My Line? and appeared on several other TV game shows. During the 1980s Sales hosted his own show on WNBC-AM in New York City.

Death of Soupy Sales:
Soupy Sales is died of cancer at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx.
Soupy Sales was 83 years old at the time of his death

Steve LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 - July 4, 2009), nicknamed Air McNair, was an American football quarterback in the National Football League. He was originally drafted by the Houston Oilers third overall in the 1995 NFL Draft. He played college football at Alcorn State.

McNair was selected to the Pro Bowl three times and was the Co-AP NFL MVP in 2003.

Death of Steve McNair
On July 4, 2009, McNair was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head, along with a female victim, 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, who was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head, in a condominium in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The Nashville police declared McNair's death a homicide on July 5, but did not reach a conclusion about the death of Kazemi

Police have not yet made a statement as to who is suspected of the killings,. Initial media reports erroneously indicated McNair's was a murder-suicide. Police were not seeking any suspects in either death.

Two days before their deaths, Kazemi was pulled over in a black 2007 Cadillac Escalade in Nashville with McNair in the passenger seat. The vehicle was registered to both McNair and Kazemi. She was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. McNair was not arrested and instead allowed to leave in a taxi

Career highlights and awards
3× Pro Bowl selection (2000, 2003, 2005)
All-Pro selection (2003)
2003 Co-AP NFL MVP
1994 Walter Payton Award 

Sam Butera (August 17, 1927 – June 3, 2009) was a tenor saxophone player best noted for his collaborations with Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Butera is frequently regarded as a crossover artist who performed with equal ease in both R & B and the post-big band pop style of jazz that permeated the early Vegas nightclub scene

Death of Sam Butera
Sam Butera died in Las Vegas at age 81. Sam Butera had Alzheimer's Disease.

Luis Prima - Hey Marie (Sam Butera on the Sax)

Guitarist and songwriter Stephen Bruton, who had played with Kris Kristofferson for nearly 40 years and whose songs had been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett and others, has died. He was 60.

Bruton died Saturday of complications of throat cancer in Los Angeles,

Stephen Bruton Guitar Solo